ADDISON COUNTY — This year’s United Way of Addison County Community Celebration event will be held on Thursday, May 30, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Vergennes Opera House. The main focus of this free, family-friendly event is to honor and thank those people who help their friends and neighbors achieve better lives by working with the United Way to make its campaign a success.
Sponsored by Green Peppers Restaurant, the event will be an evening of food and fun to celebrate the end of the campaign and thank those who enable the United Way to fulfill its mission. From payroll processing to working with community impact funding teams, these people have given their time, energy, life experience, expertise and interest to make life better for the community.
Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from the volunteers about how the work being done as a result of the campaign will impact the community. Some of those on the receiving end will share their stories as well.
New this year is the Senior Youth Service Award for a high school senior who has shown initiative and creativity in developing a community service project and has performed services that have had a positive impact on the community. The recipient will receive $100 to donate to the nonprofit human service agency of his or her choice. There is still time to nominate a student; a nomination form is online at www.unitedwayaddisoncounty.org.
In past years all youth awards were presented at the community celebration event. This year the event will focus more on the campaign. Student activism and volunteering awards will be moved to the Days of Caring event on Sept. 26, a day that is all about volunteering.
Many businesses will be recognized for their workplace campaigns, from the payroll departments that work very hard to process paperwork and keep it all on track to the campaign “warriors” who educate staff about the work the United Way does and why it matters.
This year the United Way has seen a diverse group of community members on its community impact funding teams. In addition to a variety of people from all over the Addison County, four current college students from Middlebury College and four post-grads from Middlebury College and the University of Maine participated.
The United Way would like to recognize anyone in Addison County who has participated as a volunteer in community impact funding (or “allocations,” as it used to be called). Anyone who has served in past years but has not been contacted is asked to call the United Way and come be recognized at this celebration.
This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited. For more information or to make a reservation, call at 802-388-7189, email [email protected] or visit www.unitedwayaddisoncounty.org.